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Panic Attacks

5/23-5/24/05
Dick and Karin picked me up at my house at 4:15am and headed to the meeting place. David and his father, Eric and Matt were already there when we arrived. A few moments later, Cristina and Luck pulled in the park lot while David’s father boded farewell to all. Dick distributed the tickets to each individual and we discovered that we missed Matt’s. Because he joined the group late, we booked the ticket late for him and the ticket was never mailed. I did not even bother to check just assuming everything was taken care of. Since from Reagan Airport to Chicago to Beijing was e-ticketing, we figured he would be safe at least for this part. The worse case scenario was to buy a ticket again from Beijing to Dalian while in Beijing. The price was not going to too bad since it was a domestic fare to be purchased in China.

While figuring this out for Matt, we found the bus has not arrived, yet and it was already almost 5am. It was supposed to be here at 4:30pm. Our first flight took off at 8:45 and it would take us a little over 2 hours to get to the airport. Dick thought he brought the driver’s cell phone number but couldn’t locate it. Then we tried to find Rob’s (Director Int’l Studies at SU) home number, none seemed to have it. Since we parked near the university police dept, we decided to go there and ask for Rob’s number. We located the number and tried to call it using my cell phone but got a strange recorded message from VerizonWireless my provider. We also tried to find the bus company’s number but to no avail. As the time approached to intolerably near missing our flight, the bus arrived. The excuse of the driver was by asking a question “what time was it?”

The bus was a party bus. It had two rows of seats on each side from head to toe with a bar, TV and movies. But none seemed to be in a mood partying. Maybe it was too early or the bus was too late.

While on the bus, I decided to call Zhou Hong our travel agent to find out what happened to Matt’s ticket now that it was not too early to wake her and her family up. I first tried my phone, I got the same message. It was then did I realize that I had put my phone service on hold while I was going to be gone for 80 days. This was good in a way that it saved Rob from a panic attack because otherwise my phone would have woken him up at 4:45. I made the call using Matt’s phone and was told that the ticket was never mailed. She said the same thing as we had always figured it out. We were Ok to Beijing then had to buy a ticket from there to Dalian. But she agreed to give us a refund.

Cristina, David, Eric, Luck, Matt and Tyler (who met up with us at the Reagan) were a really good bunch of students. They were easy-going, respectful, curious, open-minded and polite. They conducted themselves well. They exhibited little traits of “ugly Americans.” This assessment was confirmed later by Tammy when I arrived in Dalian. She commented that she felt comfortable instantly as soon as she met us at the Dalian airport and we were not the same as others from the US and Canada (in a good way). On a larger scale, it may be said about students at Salisbury University and youths on the eastern shore of Maryland in general. I remembered a small debate I had with David while laying over in Chicago. He was “sadly” (his own word) born and grew up in Salisbury. I said it was a good thing to grow up in this small rural town. He pointed out that while good, exposures and choices while growing up were rather limited. I joked that was perhaps why he was not as “wild” as other American youths.

Nothing to say about the flights from Reagan to Chicago or Chicago to Beijing except the latter was long (12 hours and 35 minutes). Two interesting things happened at the Beijing airport security check point. While waiting in line, an attractive and tall Chinese girl cut in right in front of us without saying anything (she acted the way like this was nothing out of abnormal). David, Tyler and I were puzzled by her rudeness. David asked me how to say “excuse me” in Chinese and said that to her. I saw her face turned red and smiled at him. I guess this is the way how David flirts with girls.

Everyone passed the security check but Dick, who was stopped by a guard. She went through his bag and was sure there was something dangerous in it. She asked if he had any metal material in the bag and he said there were three envelope openers to be given as gifts. The security guards told us that we could not bring them with us as carry-on and must send them in check in luggage. I tried to talk them out of this demand, but they wouldn’t budge. As the boarding time was fast approaching, we had no choice but went back to the ticketing counter and checked in my backpack with the letter openers. It is ironic that we came out the US system unscratched but were deemed a “security threat” in China.

Tammy, Cliff and a driver met us at the airport and transported us back to DUFE with a car and minivan. They were really super nice people and we were all impressed by their warmness and hospitality. On the way, there was a terrible traffic jam. Cliff commented it was the worst in the six years he had been in Dalian. The driver joked that since this was our first time in Dalian, all the cars in the city came out welcoming us. After seeing the dorm rooms we were to stay for the next two weeks, we were all shocked by how nice they were. They were two bedroom apts with bath, a full scaled kitchen with microwave, gas stove and refrigerator, and dining space with a table and four chairs. The entire floor was hardwood. Each bedroom had a color TV set. To me it was almost like a 4 star hotel. After briefly freshening up, we were treated to a Peking Duck dinner hosted by Tammy and Cliff. We had a lot of fun at the dinning table trying different dishes. Karin seemed to like her first Chinese wine experience while Eric, Tyler and Matt enjoyed their Dalian beers. Some of us had problems using chopsticks to pick up the food from the rolling Lazy Suzy. Some did better than others. Tyler could pick up whatever he wanted on the fly no matter how fast the table was turning while Luck vowed that he did not deserve the meal if he could not learn how to use them.

posted by Unknown @ 12:00 AM